The Game Show Forum

The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: TheInquisitiveOne on November 15, 2007, 05:44:49 PM

Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: TheInquisitiveOne on November 15, 2007, 05:44:49 PM
Hey there.

Thanks to the power of Youtube (and the fact I have been catching classic Now You See It episodes on GSN lately), I caught a glimpse of the 1989 version of Now You See It starring Chuck Henry.

Various sources say Henry requested the episodes not be aired, since he was not happy with his performance, but from what I saw, he didn't do all that badly.

What do you say? Was he as bad as he thought, or did he sell himself a bit short?

The Inquisitive One

/helluva fine job as a news anchor.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: ChrisLambert! on November 15, 2007, 06:03:21 PM
I always assumed he thought game shows beneath him. I thought he was a more-than-adequate host.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: alfonzos on November 15, 2007, 06:28:18 PM
Nice guy in person but, IIRC, he rarely smiled while hosting the show. I loved the set and the way the oppoent's viewer slammed shut when a player would ring in to respond to a question!
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Jimmy Owen on November 15, 2007, 06:39:50 PM
Certainly nothing to be ashamed of, I enjoyed the show.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Chief-O on November 15, 2007, 06:45:59 PM
I'd think it's more of a case of Henry not wanting his "hard news reporter" image tarnished by having hosted a game show, rather than being disappointed from his performance.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Neumms on November 15, 2007, 06:49:59 PM
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'169646\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 06:45 PM\']
I'd think it's more of a case of Henry not wanting his "hard news reporter" image tarnished by having hosted a game show, rather than being disappointed from his performance.
[/quote]

Apparently Chuck has no problem tarnishing his "hard news reporter" image by continuing to appear on the NBC 4 News at 5:00.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: clemon79 on November 15, 2007, 07:00:49 PM
[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'169648\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 03:49 PM\']
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'169646\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 06:45 PM\']
I'd think it's more of a case of Henry not wanting his "hard news reporter" image tarnished by having hosted a game show, rather than being disappointed from his performance.
[/quote]Apparently Chuck has no problem tarnishing his "hard news reporter" image by continuing to appear on the NBC 4 News at 5:00.[/quote]
I was gonna say, that ship sailed the first time he read the Zippy The Waterskiing Squirrel story during a kicker segment.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: chris319 on November 16, 2007, 03:35:10 AM
Geez, it's not like he was overseeing a bunch of people dressed up as carrots. NYSI was a sedate word game. He should swallow some of his newsman's false dignity and take the money. Hey, it was good enough for John Daly.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: catnap1972 on November 16, 2007, 06:23:05 AM
Didn't he have to be "rescued" from a brush fire he was reporting on some years ago?
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: joshg on November 16, 2007, 07:30:48 AM
[quote name=\'catnap1972\' post=\'169665\' date=\'Nov 16 2007, 03:23 AM\']
Didn't he have to be "rescued" from a brush fire he was reporting on some years ago?
[/quote]

Yes... he even cried about it on TV. Maybe he also cried tears silently in his dressing room between NYSI shows in 1989.

Note to self: dub those shows to DVD

Josh
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: uncamark on November 16, 2007, 11:57:52 AM
And let's not forget that high-class investigative program "Eye on Hollywood."  Yeah, that one was in the tradition of "See It Now"-grade Murrow.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Sodboy13 on November 16, 2007, 01:25:54 PM
I personally thought Chuck Henry's journalistic credibility reached its pinnacle with the early-'90s syndicated product placement showcase known as "Preview: The Best of the New."
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Jimmy Owen on November 16, 2007, 01:28:21 PM
Well, I guess as long as we're piling on, what about "The Love Report" with Tawny Godin/Little/Schneider.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: BrandonFG on November 16, 2007, 03:31:34 PM
[quote name=\'Sodboy13\' post=\'169687\' date=\'Nov 16 2007, 01:25 PM\']
I personally thought Chuck Henry's journalistic credibility reached its pinnacle with the early-'90s syndicated product placement showcase known as "Preview: The Best of the New."
[/quote]
I seriously wondered about that, even almost 17 years later (it was c. December 1990/January-1991)...I remember it pre-empting episodes of Combs' syndie Feud, and wondering what the hell it was.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: GameShowFan on November 16, 2007, 07:53:09 PM
[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'169651\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 06:00 PM\']
[quote name=\'Neumms\' post=\'169648\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 03:49 PM\']
[quote name=\'Chief-O\' post=\'169646\' date=\'Nov 15 2007, 06:45 PM\']
I'd think it's more of a case of Henry not wanting his "hard news reporter" image tarnished by having hosted a game show, rather than being disappointed from his performance.
[/quote]Apparently Chuck has no problem tarnishing his "hard news reporter" image by continuing to appear on the NBC 4 News at 5:00.[/quote]
I was gonna say, that ship sailed the first time he read the Zippy The Waterskiing Squirrel story during a kicker segment.
[/quote]

Oh no, that ship NEVER sailed. He hosted "Eye On LA" on KABC back in the day, and it was commonly referred to as "Thighs On LA."

Hard news, sure, but not quite John Charles Daly.

'Brian

/more like John Holmes
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: blugold94 on November 17, 2007, 11:09:04 PM
I really don't understand how a host can have shows not shown.  It's like Jim Kelly requesting that NFL Films never allow ESPN Classic to show Super Bowl Highlights of the Buffalo losses.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: dzinkin on November 17, 2007, 11:22:32 PM
[quote name=\'blugold94\' post=\'169794\' date=\'Nov 17 2007, 11:09 PM\']
I really don't understand how a host can have shows not shown.  It's like Jim Kelly requesting that NFL Films never allow ESPN Classic to show Super Bowl Highlights of the Buffalo losses.
[/quote]
We've discussed this in the past; legally there appears to be nothing that would stop Fremantle from telling Chuck to go screw if they were so inclined, so it's more of a courtesy move on Fremantle's part than anything else.  The company went to the trouble of asking permission from each host and celebrity guest (or the relevant estate), and where the answer was "no," Fremantle doesn't allow GSN to show those episodes.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Chelsea Thrasher on November 17, 2007, 11:31:30 PM
[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'169796\' date=\'Nov 18 2007, 12:22 AM\']We've discussed this in the past; legally there appears to be nothing that would stop Fremantle from telling Chuck to go screw if they were so inclined, so it's more of a courtesy move on Fremantle's part than anything else.  The company went to the trouble of asking permission from each host and celebrity guest (or the relevant estate), and where the answer was "no," Fremantle doesn't allow GSN to show those episodes. [/quote]

I don't even think it's courtesy on *Fremantle's* part.  When GSN was first working on getting the G-T library in 1993-94, the rights were held by Jonathan Goodson, who would seem a lot more inclined to extend these courtisies than, say, Random Fremantle executive.    And as GSN's never really had any strong inclination to actually run Now You See It at any point in the last 10 years until recently, GSN's never broached the subject with Pearson or now Fremantle.  Remember, this is the show that they replaced with Click after only a couple of weeks - in a dead end weekend slot no less.
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: uncamark on November 20, 2007, 12:44:51 PM
[quote name=\'Seth Thrasher\' post=\'169797\' date=\'Nov 17 2007, 10:31 PM\']
[quote name=\'dzinkin\' post=\'169796\' date=\'Nov 18 2007, 12:22 AM\']We've discussed this in the past; legally there appears to be nothing that would stop Fremantle from telling Chuck to go screw if they were so inclined, so it's more of a courtesy move on Fremantle's part than anything else.  The company went to the trouble of asking permission from each host and celebrity guest (or the relevant estate), and where the answer was "no," Fremantle doesn't allow GSN to show those episodes. [/quote]

I don't even think it's courtesy on *Fremantle's* part.  When GSN was first working on getting the G-T library in 1993-94, the rights were held by Jonathan Goodson, who would seem a lot more inclined to extend these courtisies than, say, Random Fremantle executive.    And as GSN's never really had any strong inclination to actually run Now You See It at any point in the last 10 years until recently, GSN's never broached the subject with Pearson or now Fremantle.  Remember, this is the show that they replaced with Click after only a couple of weeks - in a dead end weekend slot no less.
[/quote]

And in their defense, I believe that they were forced to do that--Hearst-Argyle (or Kelly, I forget which syndicator had the show back then) may've reminded them that they were contracted to repurpose "Click" on weekends and had to run it somewhere.  You don't make those kinds of changes on an out-of-the-way weekend time slot just on serendipity or ratings, especially considering that GSN was done with the weekend kids block--you do that in prime time.  :)
Title: Now You See It 1989
Post by: Scrabbleship on November 20, 2007, 12:53:29 PM
[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'170110\' date=\'Nov 20 2007, 12:44 PM\']
And in their defense, I believe that they were forced to do that--Hearst-Argyle (or Kelly, I forget which syndicator had the show back then)[/quote]

By that point, it was Hearst. The switchover from Kelly to Hearst took place concurrent with the studio move from Seattle to LA in part because KCPQ was swapped out to Tribune before Hearst bought KCRA and the syndication unit.

What I wonder is who holds the Click today. Didn't Hearst merge their syndication unit with NBC's several years back? Or did the rights post-syndication revert to Merv Griffin Entertainment?